College improves your earning prospects. So does marriage. Education makes you more likely to live longer. So does marriage.

Her answer to her question?

Which makes me gravitate towards a more parsimonious explanation: all economists are, definitionally, very good at college. Not all economists are good at marriage. Saying that more people should go to college will make 0% of your colleagues feel bad. Saying that more people should get married and stay married will make a significant fraction of your colleagues feel bad. And in general, most people have an aversion to topics which are likely to trigger a personal grudge in a coworker.

Good answer…but not great, even if her explanation is the biggest variable. Which it probably isn’t. A commenter soon added:

Because you can sleep with cute 21-year-old girls in college, whereas in marriage that kind of thing is frowned upon.

Megan’s reason is a bigger factor. Hopefully. But the picture is still incomplete. Any other topics“likely to trigger a personal grudge”? Bueller? Bueller?

“What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals! “.